Lady Privateers Finalize Roster with Six Additional Players

Lady Privateer Mirjam Sipos is the lone returning player on the roster ahead of 2010-11.

NEW ORLEANS - University of New Orleans head women's basketball coach Amy Champion finalized her roster on Thursday afternoon with the addition of six players, giving the team 12 players to enter the 2010-11 campaign.

The most recent group of additions includes Britney Blanchard, Dinnelle Cormier, Pamela Estrada, Scarlet Harris, Treona Secrease and Michele Washington. Discovered during on-campus tryouts and other recruiting efforts by the Lady Privateer coaching staff, the newcomers have already started pre-season conditioning in anticipation of the coming season.

Of the six additions, Cormier and Estrada will join the squad with just two years of eligibility left. The remaining four will begin their UNO athletic careers as freshmen with four years of eligibility.

Cormier is a junior college transfer from Lewis & Clark Community College where she received all-conference honors. A year before, the one-time prep at McDonough 35, earned all-conference honors while at Hill Junior College in Texas. Estrada, whose father was captain of the El Salvador national soccer team in the early 1990s, was already on campus and pursuing a degree at UNO prior to joining this year's roster.

In addition to Cormier, three other players prepped in the greater New Orleans area. Blanchard was a member of the basketball team at Grace King, while Harris and Washington played prep basketball at Lutcher and Northshore, respectively.

Rounding out the group is the El Salvador native Estrada and Secrease, who comes to the team by way of Quartz Hill, Calif.

The group will returning guard Mirjam Sipos and the five Louisiana natives announced over the summer as members of the Lady Privateer roster. UNO will open the season on the road Nov. 12 at 7 p.m. against former Sun Belt Conference rival ULM. A full schedule will be announced shortly.

UNOPrivateers.com is the official web site of the University of New Orleans Privateers. The Privateers can also be followed on their official Facebook page, www.facebook.com/UNOPrivateers or on Twitter, www.twitter.com/UNOPrivateers.